WorldNetDaily

Guess how 'the One' will be honored next

Obama Day, Park, High School, Birthplace – if only they can figure exactly where that is

Drew Zahn covers movies for WND as a contributing writer. A former pastor, he is the editor of seven books, including Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, which sparked his ongoing love affair with film and his weekly WND column, "Popcorn and a (world)view." Drew currently serves as communications director for The Family Leader.

Hawaii’s state legislators are lining up a string of new holidays, parks and memorials to honor Barack Obama, the first American president to claim the state as his home – though commemorating his birthplace may prove difficult.

Senate President Coleen Hanabusa wants Aug. 4 to be a state holiday commemorating Obama’s birthday, reports the Honolulu Advertiser; and State Rep. Della Au Belatti is pressing for Obama’s inauguration day, Jan. 20, to be memorialized in Hawaii as Barack Obama II Ohana Day.

And though Hanabusa and Belatti are Obama’s fellow Democrats, even Republican state Rep. Gene Ward is hoping to add to the honors list.

“We’re all Americans first and then we’re Republicans and then we’re Democrats,” Ward told the Advertiser.

Ward is proposing Hawaii establish a President Barack Obama Birthplace State Park.

Only, the president has yet to reveal exactly where his birthplace is.

In October last year, WND sought answers to the hospital question by retaining a top private investigator with extensive FBI training and tasked with visiting both the Queens Medical Center and the Kapi’olani Medical Center to investigate claims that Obama birth certificates existed at either hospital.

The private investigator, however, reported that sheriff’s deputies were stationed at both hospitals to fend off press inquiries about Obama’s birth certificate.

Ward is not daunted by the confusion, instead suggesting that 4,124 square feet of currently overgrown scrub land at 6091 Kalaniana’ole Highway be used for the proposed birthplace park, since it sits near to 6085 Kalaniana’ole Highway, the address listed in a 1961 Advertiser birth announcement as home to Obama’s parents.

Commemorating Obama’s childhood home might also prove challenging, as the president spent his Hawaiian boyhood years in half a dozen Honolulu residences with one or more of his relatives.

One resolution before the state legislature proposes placing the apartment building where Obama’s grandparents lived on the National Register of Historic Places. Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, still lived in the building until her death two days before Obama’s election as president.

The resolution acknowledges that even though it’s unusual to place a condominium or apartment building on the National Register, “the Punahou Circle apartment where President Obama and his grandmother lived represents a proud and historic part of history in Hawaii.”

The Advertiser reports other proposed honors include renaming Obama’s first school – Noelani Elementary School – President Barack Hussein Obama II Elementary School and changing McKinley High School to President Barack Hussein Obama II High School.

Honolulu’s Mayor Mufi Hannemann has joined the fray, urging the city council to rename ‘Ä€ina Moana Beach Park – commonly known as Magic Island – to President Barack Obama Beach Park at Magic Island.

Ward told the Advertiser the efforts represent the state Legislature’s desire to remind the state’s citizens “of the greatness of who we are in Hawaii and what we can achieve – and [Obama] is a good example of that.”

As WND has reported, Obama’s birthplace is only one of many pieces of information still unknown about the sitting president’s past. Other documentation not yet available includes his kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, his adoption records and even a long-form birth certificate that could quell questions about Obama’s place of birth.

The “certification of live birth” posted online and widely touted as “Obama’s birth certificate” does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same “short-form” document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true “long-form” birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.